Liquid hit rock bottom as VP.Prodigy knock them out of the BLAST Open London qualifier
VP.Prodigy — the academy team of Virtus.pro and the 83rd team in the world in HLTV's world ranking — eliminated Liquid out of contention for a spot in BLAST Open Lisbon this Friday, August 1st.
This defeat marks an all-time low for this iteration of Liquid and comes less than a month after management decided not to make roster changes.
Liquid and VP.Prodigy faced one another in the quarterfinals of RES Showdown 2: BLAST Premier Rising Event today, and the inexperienced Russian team prevailed despite the odds.
VP.Prodigy won Dust2 dominantly (13-7) off the back of an impressive T-side in the first half, in which they conceded only three rounds to Liquid. Then, the series moved to Liquid's pick Mirage, and it was them who gave a T-side masterclass, having won the first half by 10-2.
Nuke, the decider, was anything but a blowout as both teams fought tooth and nail. But ultimately, VP.Prodigy prevailed and won by 16-14 despite Keith "NAF" Markovic's best efforts on the map.
This upset will certainly put Vladimir "b1st" Krasikov, VP.Prodigy's 17-year-old AWPer, on the radar, as he dropped 55 kills and a 1.34 rating on Liquid.
LiquidVP.Prodigy| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
55 - 36 | +19 | 90.3 | 70.8% | 1.44 |
| Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
46 - 46 | +0 | 75.1 | 72.3% | 1.06 |
 Roland 'ultimate' Tomkowiak |
46 - 43 | +3 | 71.8 | 69.2% | 1.04 |
 Guy 'NertZ' Iluz |
38 - 51 | -13 | 64.8 | 66.2% | 0.92 |
| Kamil 'siuhy' Szkaradek |
33 - 48 | -15 | 61.9 | 70.8% | 0.81 |
| VP.Prodigy |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Vladimir 'b1st' Krasikov |
55 - 37 | +18 | 81.7 | 84.6% | 1.40 |
| Vadim 'tO0RO' Arkov |
43 - 42 | +1 | 77.0 | 73.8% | 1.15 |
| Alexander 'AquaRS' Kovalev |
49 - 45 | +4 | 77.8 | 73.8% | 1.07 |
| Daniil 'TriBorgg1' Buchkovskiy |
38 - 46 | -8 | 70.1 | 70.8% | 0.88 |
 Dias 'F0R3VER' Kutubay |
39 - 48 | -9 | 59.8 | 63.1% | 0.84 |
The loss to VP.Prodigy comes days after Liquid were sent packing at IEM Cologne 2025 at the hands of FaZe. Fans are starting to question whether the team will qualify for the StarLadder Budapest Major, as they also lost to Sashi at the ESL Pro League S22 qualifier earlier this month and are competing against EU teams for a Major spot.
Liquid will have to pick up the pieces soon, given they'll play against ECSTATIC in BLAST Bounty 2025 Season 2 on Tuesday, August 5th. The loser will be eliminated from the tournament and miss the LAN Finals.
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